During a PBS interview on Monday night Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that Surface may prompt Apple to shift its iPad strategy in order to compete with the capabilities offered by the upcoming Windows 8 tablet.

Gates gushed about Microsoft's Surface during a Charlie Rose expos? saying the device is a completely new form factor which he said was "exciting" for the market, according to CNET.

The tech mogul went on to say that consumers can have the best of both worlds with a tablet that runs a full-fledged desktop operating system, clearly alluding to the iPad's stripped-down iOS. Indeed, most of the talk regarding Surface drew direct and indirect comparisons to Apple's tablet offering which is the unquestioned leader in the space.

"You don't have to make a compromise," Gates said. "You can have everything you like about a tablet and everything you like about a PC all in one device. And so that should change the way people look at things."

Speaking to Microsoft's first attempt at a tablet format, Gates said that he had the idea "way too early," noting that "there were a few things that could have been done differently to bring [a Windows tablet] to critical mass."

When pressed about why late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was able to get the iPad platform off the ground, Gates cited market timing and the "package that he had put together." The "package" is assumedly the successful combination of Apple's industrial hardware design and the company's multi-touch mobile operating system that was both easy to use and easy on the eyes. Early attempts at Windows-based tablets were not "thin and attractive" and indeed many Surface progenitors looked like normal laptops or were merely "convertibles" with rotatable displays.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the Surface two weeks ago in a surprise event and revealed the company would be launching two versions of the device, an ARM-supported model called Surface for Windows RT and an Intel Core i5 iteration dubbed Surface for Windows 8 Pro.

The new device, which is to be Microsoft branded, has caused some controversy with OEMs that license Windows for their hardware. Shortly after Surface was announced, Acer founder Stan Shih said that the tablet is just a ploy to boost Windows 8 adoption and guessed that Microsoft would abandon the project after the first models roll out later this year. More recently, HP was said to be ditching Windows RT altogether in favor of other mobile operating systems though the rumor has yet to be verified.

Apple has dominated the tablet market since the inception of the first iPad in 2010 and has enjoyed a great deal of success with the most-recent Retina display model. Some estimates see the iPad's marketshare sitting at 60 percent for 2012 and could account for 50.9 percent of total shipments by 2017. Tablet sales are forecast to surpass laptops in the next four years and will grow from 121 million units in 2012 to 416 million in 2016.

A smaller, 7.85-inch version of the iPad is rumored to be in the works for a release date later this fall. The most recent reports claim that the device will sport an IGZO display and be priced between $250 to $300.

Which part of Surface does Apple need to match? The content-focused, ARM-running Surface for Windows RT that competes directly with the multi-million-selling iPad? Or the desktop-focused, Intel-running Surface for Windows 8 Pro that competes directly with the multi-million-selling MacBook Air? Seems to me Apple's already got it covered.

The tech mogul went on to say that consumers can have the best of both worlds with a tablet that runs a full-fledged desktop operating system, clearly alluding to the iPad's stripped-down iOS. Indeed, most of the talk regarding Surface drew direct and indirect comparisons to Apple's tablet offering which is the unquestioned leader in the space.
"You don't have to make a compromise," Gates said. "You can have everything you like about a tablet and everything you like about a PC all in one device. And so that should change the way people look at things."

Why would anyone have to look at things differently if you can (have to) continue to do them the same way (same OS)?

OK - I don't post often, but when I have I feel that they have been fairly decent posts and contributed to the discussion. Hopefully that has earned me the right to get a way with this gem I just had to log in to share:

Microsoft is so scared shitless that Windows will NOT be on tablets that they had to build a X86 tablet to KEEP it around a little while longer. Those tablets may sell or they may not. Some business users may gobble them up, but consumers do not need full-blown PCs. They just need something to tweet, email, store pics, facebook, etc. Scientists and engineers may need windows, but consumers don't.

It may well be fit for purpose but for it to be fully useable you're going to have to cart around a keyboard, mouse, stylus and extra batteries or at least cables to plug it in. Don't get me wrong, I hope its dynamic and brilliant because it will help encourage innovation and keep Apple on its toes but from a home user perspective, Apple will continue to dominate with its holistic approach. It's a new toy for windows lovers to get into and be able to play with file explorer and keep the hackers and virus writers busy and the virus companies rich. I wish it the best of luck.

Come now...you know you all want to create Microsoft office docs on a 10" screen...especially when most probably have a laptop or desktop...or both...less than 10 steps away. My only disappointment is that I can't create and use autoexec.bat files on my iPad =). Probably time for bill to start looking for a new PR team...

"You don't have to make a compromise," Gates said. "You can have everything you like about a tablet and everything you like about a PC all in one device..."

LOL! Is he really out of touch with his own company? Somebody needs to tell him that Surface isn't an "all in one device" it's two separate devices - one which runs PC apps and one which runs mobile apps, and those apps are not interchangeable! Perhaps he didn't yet watch the announcement last week ;)

WHAT is this man (and the whole of Microsoft) SMOKING up in Redmond/Medina???!???

Microsoft's "Surface": the monster-mashed twin stepchildren of an iPad and a MacBook Air (as Mike Barriault distinguished above!) running "special-looking" new versions of Windows (which are darned FUGLY).

THIS monstrosity is going to set the new standard for the market?

Cough-gag-wheeze-COUGH choke. Um, no.

Bill's having "delusions of grandeur" again -- speaking for a company with only ONE major hardware success (a gaming console), and speaking against a company that is BUILT on a potent STRING of incredible, paradigm-advancing hardware successes.

Hilarious. All you have to do is buy the "Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover" for your iPad, and you have the Microsoft Surface.

I think this is as hilarious as the next guy... but really... the logitech "cover" you speak of is anything but "ultrathin". At 8mm it will basically double the thickness of your iPad. Logitech calling it a "cover" is hilarious. It's nothing at all like the 3mm touch cover for the Surface. I've been a Mac user for 20 years and have never and will never own a PC... but credit where credit is due... you have to admit that the 3mm touch cover for the Surface is pretty cool. Hopefully it will inspire Logitech to up their game.

iPad is for that group that everything they own other people made and everything that has ever inspired them other people have imagined - be nice to have a tablet for the rest of us.

iOS has always been the dumbing down of Apple - the device for "joe" - who can produce little with their time - reason why it has so many silly video games

You're right. Not. iOS has extremely advanced APIs and highly efficient hardware that makes difficult look ``dumbed down.'' Steve Jobs recognized People spend 90% of their computer time on a Web Browser and instead of attempting to shove a kludge down everyone's throat by telling them they all need business applications they brokered two tracks--the enterprise and the consumer. The Enterprise builds custom solutions for their business processes and extends to the Cloud and the Consumer gets a bevy of consumer driven consumption software that no platform can touch. Desktops and Laptops are not going anywhere. Microsoft could give a rat's ass about a laptop now that they are entering into the OEM market with their kludge. They fantasize about selling hundreds of millions of kludges running Office and thus absolving the need for small to enterprise level staff using these pieces of crap that will be replaced every 12 months, instead of the typical 24-48 month replacement businesses currently schedule in stages.

Microsoft makes the bulk of its revenues off of their office products and that will never change. They shove that crap down everyone's throat by force feeding the education markets with it and now that they are getting smoked in the education fields Bill is going on a PR campaign to talk about how Apple needs to be more like Microsoft.

Steve recognized that was Apple's problem and now Microsoft can't handle reality--the world is leaving Microsoft behind.

Why is Bill even discussing tech? ALL HE EVER DID was universally license Windows, for which Apple brought him the GUI in the first place. Everything MS learned, they learned from Apple, EXCEPT for the part about Universal Licensing. They "innovated" the practice of whoring out their OS all on their own. It certainly did end up putting a PC in every home. It also blessed hapless consumers with the worst computing experiences ever conceived. Dark Ages of tech.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was called "evasive and nonresponsive" by a source present at a session in which Gates was questioned on his deposition.[2] He argued over the definitions of words such as "compete", "concerned", "ask", and "we".[3] BusinessWeek reported, "Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle.

Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance have been directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of E-mail Gates both sent and received."[4] Intel Vice-President Steven McGeady, called as a witness, quoted Paul Maritz, a senior Microsoft vice president as having stated an intention to "extinguish" and "smother" rival Netscape Communications Corporation and to "cut off Netscape's air supply" by giving away a clone of Netscape's flagship product for free. The Microsoft executive denied the allegations.[5]

A number of videotapes were submitted as evidence by Microsoft during the trial, including one that demonstrated that removing Internet Explorer from Microsoft Windows caused slowdowns and malfunctions in Windows.

In the videotaped demonstration of what Microsoft vice president James Allchin's stated to be a seamless segment filmed on one PC, the plaintiff noticed that some icons mysteriously disappear and reappear on the PC's desktop, suggesting that the effects might have been falsified.[6] Allchin admitted that the blame for the tape problems lay with some of his staff "They ended up filming it -- grabbing the wrong screen shot," he said of the incident.

Later, Allchin re-ran the demonstration and provided a new videotape, but in so doing Microsoft dropped the claim that Windows is slowed down when Internet Explorer is removed. Mark Murray, a Microsoft spokesperson, berated the government attorneys for "nitpicking on issues like video production."[7] Microsoft submitted a second inaccurate videotape into evidence later the same month as the first. The issue in question was how easy or hard it was for America Online users to download and install Netscape Navigator onto a Windows PC. Microsoft's videotape showed the process as being quick and easy, resulting in the Netscape icon appearing on the user's desktop.

The government produced its own videotape of the same process, revealing that Microsoft's videotape had conveniently removed a long and complex part of the procedure and that the Netscape icon was not placed on the desktop, requiring a user to search for it. Brad Chase, a Microsoft vice president, verified the government's tape and conceded that Microsoft's own tape was falsified.[8]

iPad is for that group that everything they own other people made and everything that has ever inspired them other people have imagined - be nice to have a tablet for the rest of us.

iOS has always been the dumbing down of Apple - the device for "joe" - who can produce little with their time - reason why it has so many silly video games

Real men use iPads to have fun. They aren't much good for work so real men have real computers for when they need to work. Some real men try to get by working on an iPad but it really depends on what kind of work they need to do. If the iPad is suitable then they can get by, if not, they switch to a real computer. This really isn't rocket science. The problem I see with that combo device is that it really isn't very good at either fun or work. We'll know more when they actually release it.

Bill Gates has never been a visionary. He's a marketing guy that either stole ideas or bought companies out to get those ideas. Microsoft is not capable of critical thinking. This is why they are 4 years behind Apple and there's one critical thing Surface doesn't have - iTunes.

If you look at the big picture, Microsoft has everything riding on this detachable keyboard - the Surface's biggest feature. If the keyboard sucks, like it looks like it does then they will have another Zune on their hands.